Study shows infantry soldiers more susceptible to suicide

Rates tripled from 2004 to 2012

A sweeping new Army study has found that some of America’s fiercest warriors experience the highest risk of suicide: the infantry.

From their psychological make-up and their training to their combat experience, a growing body of research suggests the very qualities and training that enable them to kick down doors in trouble-spots around the globe could create a perfect storm for suicide.

“We found that the infantry MOS (military occupational specialty) and a few others involving combat arms had a significantly elevated suicide risk,” said Dr. Michael Schoenbaum, one of the scientific leaders of the Army STARRS study that focuses on suicide risk and resilience among soldiers.

The study, expected to be released later this year, comes at a time when the Department of Defense is paying more attention to suicides in the ranks and among veterans. Among current service members the suicide rate is remaining steady but historically high while the number of veterans killing themselves represent one of every four suicides in Florida.

The study, a collaborative effort between the Army and the National Institute of Mental Health, began after Secretary of the Army Pete Geren approached the institute in 2008 with concerns about the Army’s alarming rise in suicides.

In 2004, the Army experienced a suicide rate of about 10 soldiers per 100,000. By 2008, that rate had doubled and would nearly triple in 2012 to 28 per 100,000.

“The suicide rate in demographically comparable civilians was flat over this same period at about 18 to 19 per 100,000,” Schoenbaum said. “So this huge increase in the active-duty Army was unique to the Army; it wasn’t because suicides were rising everywhere in society.”

Just why infantry soldiers in particular are more at risk isn’t settled, but clues are emerging.

Most prior research on military suicide focused on the military as a whole, making broad assumptions about a population as different from each other as the civilian population.

“Let’s call it nonsense,” Schoenbaum said.

One assumption was that deployments don’t affect suicide risk, a conclusion drawn by a team or researchers from the Naval Health Research Center in San Diego. The study, published in the Aug. 7 edition of the Journal of the American Medical Association used research from service members across the military spectrum.

“There’s no reason why one should expect the experience of being deployed if you’re in the Navy or the Air Force is the same as the experience in the Army or Marines when you actually have boots on the ground,” Schoenbaum said.

The Army STARRS study — using data from over 110,000 Army soldiers who served between 2004 and 2009 — found that initial deployments do raise the risk of suicide.

The training for deployment and actual combat experience can contribute to an increased risk of suicide.

Research suggests that an ability to overcome the fear of pain and death is an integral component of suicide.

Suicide naturally causes fear and those who commit suicide must be able to overcome it, noted a study published in the journal of the American Association of Suicidology. “[C]ombat often exposes service members to fear, pain and death, which may increase habituation to factors related to the capability to kill oneself.”

Col. Porcher L. Taylor of Jacksonville served in World War II, Korea and Vietnam, much of that time spent as an infantry officer.

“I think it is the psychology of war that you become desensitized to fear,” he said.

However, for infantry soldiers, the study found their suicide risk was elevated even before they ever deployed.

For most soldiers, their suicide risk is low before their first deployment, the study found.

During deployment, that risk spikes and then comes back down after the soldiers return home, though it is never as low as the pre-deployment level, Schoenbaum said.

In contrast, people in combat arms roles experience a higher risk of suicide before they deploy. That risk actually dropped substantially during deployment, but rises to a higher level than other soldiers after coming home.

“It looks like the people who enlist in these infantry MOSes are different people from the beginning,” he said.

Men — who are naturally more aggressive and have a risk-taking mentality — are drawn to these roles, and the Army recruits for these types of characteristics.

“In a way, you would both expect that and you would want that,” Schoenbaum said. “You’re recruiting people into these frontline positions who are risk-takers.

“At the same time, our research suggests that there is this other thing that may come along with these desirable characteristics that, for whatever reason, puts them at a higher risk for suicide.”

Identifying the groups within the Army most at-risk was a major objective of the study, which will wrap up this year.

“The answer from our perspective is very clear: Until you determine who’s most at risk, you don’t know how to help people,” he said.

For everyone's information, other myths about causes for military suicide were also debunked - at least as they pertain to Army soldiers. Stop-loss orders, waivers for enlistment and multiple deployments were also found to not significantly raise the risk for suicide. Only a soldier's first deployment was found to significantly raise the risk.